Take-Two released a financial report for the first quarter of the fiscal year 2012, which ended June 30, 2011. They suffered a loss of $44 million in net revenue from a year ago and are now at $334.4 million. GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) income from continuing operations were also down to $8.6 million, or $0.11 per share. Last year, GAAP income from continuing operations was at $27.4 million, or $0.31 per diluted share. Non-GAAP net income was hit hard as well, falling to $2.0 million, or $0.02 per share; whereas a year ago it was at $40.9 million, or $0.43 per diluted share.

Nevertheless, Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO of Take-Two, seemed positive: “Given our solid performance year-to-date and robust pipeline of upcoming new releases, we are well positioned to be profitable on a Non-GAAP basis in fiscal year 2012.”

Take-Two commented that their largest sellers included new titles such as L.A. Noire, Duke Nukem Forever, NBA 2K11 and Carnival Games: Monkey See, Monkey Do, and catalog titles led by the Red Dead Redemption franchise, the Grand Theft Auto franchise and Borderlands. They also stated that digitally delivered content accounted for $24.6 million of net revenue, up 49% from last year, thanks to Red Dead Redemption, Borderlands, the Grand Theft Auto series, Duke Nukem Forever, the Sid Meier’s Civilization series, and L.A. Noire.

Three big name games are being released this year by Take-Two: BioShock Infinite, Spec Ops: The Line, and Borderlands 2, and the company hinted that more games are to come. Take-Two also stated that they are investing more in online and mobile gaming, including games for Apple’s iOS mobile operating system and Facebook. Zelnick stated that “[t]hese initiatives are just the beginning of our ongoing efforts to drive growth through these emerging and exciting areas of gaming.”

Analysis: I will echo my earlier concerns over social gaming taking a lead on console gaming. Take-Two has released pretty big games in the past quarter. L.A. Noire was at the top of the gaming charts for at least two months, and while Duke Nukem Forever was arguably a flop, NBA 2K11 didn’t do poorly at all. On top of this, they mentioned that they made some good money on Red Dead Redemption, Borderlands (which gets a sequel shortly), Grand Theft Auto, and Civilization, which are usually favorites. And they still suffered a loss overall.

Zelnick was still positive. I can’t tell if that’s regular CEO don’t-freak-out-that-we-lost-a-bit-of-money talk; eagerness about the Borderlands 2, BioShock, and Spec Ops drops; or because they’re also heading into social gaming. I suspect it’s probably all of the above. But if it’s mostly the last bit, that they’re really excited to be heading face first into social gaming, well… let’s hope that Zynga doesn’t steal from them, too.